Afghan Heroes Charity Motorcycle Ride
Wootton Bassett - Sunday 14th march 2010
By Phil Dainty (CVAM)

This ride all came about from an idea by an 18 year old young lady by the name of Elizabeth Stevens. She thought it would be a good idea to show our troops they are well supported, by staging a motorcycle ride through Wootton Bassett, where far too often our fallen have made the sad journey home to be repatriated, but also to thank the towns people for all their help and support during these difficult ceremonies. She started a page on Facebook and the rest is history.....................

My wife Deb and I were determined to take part in this ride to show our support, with the added incentive of having two son's serving in the Army, one of which was out in Afghanistan and not due to finish his tour until April 2010 (having made 4 previous visits to the country!)

To take part riders and pillions were required to register their interest. Once bike numbers reached 10,300 and totals including pillions reached over 15,000 the organisers had to stop registrations and have a re-think. Leigh Delemere, the proposed meeting place couldn't take that many, the M4 would be in chaos and the finish point of RAF Lyneham withdrew their offer of finishing the ride there because of the security issues involved with such numbers.

Eventually, with co-operation from the Police, MOD, Highways Agency and Wootton Bassett Town Council (to name just a few), the ride was on. The meeting place was Hullavington Airfield with allotted arrival times throughout the day, a ride through the local villages and down Wootton Bassett High Street, then dispersal at the roundabout the other side of the town. Unfortunately due to the vast number, the organisers couldn't secure another venue to allow bikes to re-assemble.

So it came about, that we met up with Mike Geldard (who's son is also a serving Soldier) at 7.30am on the car park of Morrison's in Weston.

Deb and Mike ‘ dressing the bikes up at Leigh Delemere Services

We took the quickest way, M5, M4, stopping for a short while at Leigh Delemere to await our allotted arrival time of 9am. Bikes were already starting to assemble here. We made the short hop to Hullavington airfield and were met by a sea of marshals, pointing us in the right direction. Having handed over our £5 donation we were marshalled into long rows of two a breast bikes, ready for the ride that started a little later.

We arrived just in time...........behind us was a single moving mass of bikes.....THOUSANDS of them!! This was the seen just after the first two lines, on the left of the runway, had pulled off. You can see the queue of bikes still arriving at the bottom right!! This became a very emotion time and I can say without shame that I shed a few tears, seeing all the support for our Armed Forces. Having parked up, we made for the tea and bacon roll stand, where we took in the sights and sounds of thousands of bikes arriving, the sight was truly amazing. Just before 11am we were summoned to the improvised stage to hear from the Mother’s of Soldiers killed in Afghanistan, who had started up the ‘ Afghan Heroes ‘ Charity. There was also a rousing speech from one of the main organisers, Julia Stevenson, a short speech from the Lord Mayor of Wootton Bassett who asked us to make the day ‘Loud and Proud’ and finally a young Paratrooper who had been seriously injured in Afghanistan. Then it was back to the bikes ready for the ride. We left in groups of 500, complete with Police escort, with the three of us being in the second group to pull off. www.afghanheroes.org.uk "With over 210 soldiers killed in Afghanistan and MoD figures showing that in the month of July 2009 alone there were 94 injuries associated with the war in Afghanistan, the time is right for a charity dedicated to the welfare of those directly involved in the conflict. The mother of a soldier who died in an explosion in Afghanistan in July had the idea to set up a charity to provide support for those directly involved in the conflict.Afghan Heroes has been launched by a group of mothers with the aim of helping our service personnel directly on the front line; the families of those who have fallen and our returning service personnel who have witnessed these horrific losses of their fellow comrades. Afghan Heroes is independent of other charities. It deals specifically with members of the British forces and their families that have been affected by the military operations in Afghanistan now and into the future. The intention is to operate until a minimum of five-years from the cessation of our military presence in Afghanistan."

Deb, with ‘Help for Heroes’ bear safely strapped to her bike and
Mike taking a photograph of the back of her head LOL

The route took us through several villages, with the residents lining the route, clapping and waving their flags. Many had decorated the outside of the homes and gardens with flags and bunting.

Finally we arrived at Wootton Bassett and was led slowly down the High Street. We weren’t sure what to expect but again became emotional when we saw the streets lined with thousands of people all cheering, clapping and waving flags.

The ride down the High Street seemed to end far too quickly as we arrived at the dispersal point. Many bikers decided to stay and parked wherever they could squeeze in. However, we heeded the organisers request and carried on out of the town stopping at a pub a short distance away.

Usually this part of Wootton Bassett is known for the sombre ceremony’s of repatriation
but on 14th March 2010 it became ‘ Loud and Proud ‘!

Me and Mike having a well earned brew after a fantastic ride through Wootton Bassett.

Mike picked a great route back via Avesbury, with us parting ways up on the Mendips so he could head off to Wells whilst we continued to Weston, finally arriving home about 4.30pm.

What a great day for all involved, with donations topping £102,000, from a very generous biking community, to an excellent charity.

Due to it’s overwhelming success, the organisers would like to try and make this an annual fund raising event……be warned, if they do you’ll need to get in early with your registration because I’m sure it will be a popular event on the biking calendar. Police reports put bike numbers near to 18,000 and total with pillions between 22,000 and 25,000!!




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